Name: Nagahige Barefoot
Race:  Deep Gnome
           (Svirfneblin)

Nagahige Barefoot was born into the shadowed silence of the Underdark, a deep gnome from a proud but secluded clan of artisans renowned for their skill in crafting delicate trinkets and enchanted curiosities. His name, meaning "Long Beard" in his own tongue. The strange part about him was he insisted to wander barefooted, a quirk that set him apart from his kin and earned him the nickname Barefoot for his preference to walk without the protective greaves typical of Underdark dwellers.

From a young age, Nagahige showed an uncanny aptitude for intricate craftsmanship, creating baubles and gewgaws imbued with faint traces of magic. This talent, however, would prove his undoing.

When Nagahige was barely 60, a young adult by gnome standards, a raiding party of drow descended upon his settlement. They sought slaves with rare skills, and Nagahige's craft caught their eye. Taken captive, he was dragged into the cold, cruel embrace of drow society, where he was forced to toil in their forges, creating jewelry, enchanted trinkets, and tools of cruelty for their aristocratic masters.

Years passed in chains, but the indomitable spark of the gnome's resilience refused to be extinguished. In his captivity, Nagahige secretly honed his skills, creating tools of escape hidden in the guise of innocent baubles. One fateful night, he used one such creation, a ring disguised as a trinket but imbued with teleportation magic to flee his captors.

Now free but deeply scarred by his experiences, Nagahige wandered the Underdark, surviving by trading his creations. His travels brought him to the duergar, deep dwarves with their own ruthless practicality. Recognizing a lucrative opportunity, Nagahige began exchanging his trinkets for rare Underdark goods, and later, he expanded his trade to include surface-dwellers captured by the duergar.

It was during this time that Nagahige first encountered sun-loving human women. To him, they were a strange, fragile, and beautiful novelty. At first, he saw them purely as valuable goods to be bartered, but as time went on, Nagahige became uncomfortably aware of a darker aspect of his own nature?he found himself drawn to these captives in ways that blurred the line between obsession and fascination.

The twisted morality of the Underdark dulled his sense of guilt, and he indulged in his desires, convincing himself it was simply the natural order. Yet, somewhere deep inside, a faint ember of conscience began to stir.

Present Day
Nagahige Barelegs is a gnome of contrasts. On the one hand, he is a savvy and ruthless merchant, navigating the treacherous politics of the Underdark with ease. On the other, he is a deeply conflicted individual, haunted by his captivity and the choices he has made since his escape.

As he begins to interact more with the surface world, Nagahige finds himself questioning the life he has built. The light of the sun, so reviled by his kin, holds an inexplicable allure. He wonders whether there might be redemption to be found in the warmth of that light, or whether he is forever condemned to the shadows he was born into.

Nagahige Barelegs now embarks on a journey not just of commerce but of self-discovery, seeking a path that reconciles his dark past with a brighter future.